Post Your Introduction. 1st Post Due by Day 1. Welcome to PHI103!
The first thing that you will need to do in this course is to introduce yourself to the professor and classmates by the end of the first day of the course.
This 20 PHI103: INFORMAL LOGIC COURSE GUIDE introductory prompt will also include some substantive reflection on the value of critical thinking. Chapter 1 of the textbook for this course will help you understand the connection of logic to critical thinking; you may wish to review this chapter before preparing your initial post. Prepare:
Prior to posting your intro, watch the video titled This Is Water by David Foster Wallace. It is a speech by David Foster Wallace delivered to a graduating class at Kenyon College. Students overwhelmingly find it enlightening, so we trust that you will find it similarly meaningful. As you watch, consider that logical reasoning is a fundamental tool for becoming a critical thinker. One of the reasons why employers hire university graduates is because they have received training in logical reasoning in courses such as this. Lacking this training, our default mechanism is to see situations, especially those that are frustrating or stressful, as affecting only ourselves. As Wallace says, “I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I’m operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities.” (sebekt, 2013). Reflect: Consider the main point of Wallace’s speech, which is this: the value of a university education is that it gives you the freedom to choose how you see situations—what has meaning and what doesn’t. What he means is that reason frees us to choose how we interpret our circumstances rather than merely feeling like victims. Write: Draft an initial paragraph with your introduction to your instructor and classmates indicating your major at Ashford, your reasons for undertaking your university journey, and (if you so choose) anything else about you that you would like to share. In a second paragraph of your post, write your reflections on the idea that the value of a university education is that it gives you the freedom to choose how you interpret your circumstances, regardless of what is happening around you. Do you usually command such freedom, or do you find yourself taken over by frustration, impatience, and even rage, when things around you do not work out the way that you would prefer? How would reason help you gain freedom in these situations? What advantages are there to critical thinking? What do you expect to gain from a course in logic?
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My name is (insert your name here) and am happy to be a member of this class. Indeed, this is a great opportunity. I am also very happy to take up this course because it is very significant to me. We all need to think critically so as to solve problems that the world throws at us. All professionals need some level of critical thinking so as to able to effectively handle situations. In addition to this, I am expecting that the course will help me understand clearly various questions that I always have about critical thinking. Understanding……
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